Haunted Blade (Colbana Files Book 6)

by J. C. Daniels

  Nice trick, I thought to myself. I needed to figure out how she’d done that.

  Still gripping Damon’s hand, I glanced over Icarus. His eyes lingered on Aman for a long moment and then he turned to address the room at large. “We are missing one of our number.”

  The solemnity of his tone didn’t affect Whittier but Aman’s mouth folded into a pensive frown. “I recall receiving news that there were no dead from Holiday among those executed.”

  “None of the bodies collected or identified were reported as belonging to House Holiday,” I said softly. The vampire house was the farthest south in Florida, nearly a ninety minute trip both ways, but that sort of thing wasn’t much of a factor when none of the vamps who were old enough to out and mingle were closing in on a century. Time was something vamps had to spare and if they lingered in one of the clubs until nearly dawn, there were safe houses provided for them by said clubs, not to mention facilities offered by the Assembly.

  “Excuse me,” I said softly. I eased out from between the guards Damon had placed on my ass—and it felt like those were the orders. Stay on her ass. Hardly any distance got between me, Shanelle or Scott.

  Brahm, at least, had the courtesy to keep a yard or so back, but he didn’t need to be close to bring somebody a world of pain.

  All of it was making me feel claustrophobic.

  And now I had the perfect excuse to step out into the hallway.

  I heard movement behind me and knew I wasn’t going to make a clean get away.

  But when I placed my back against the wall on the far side of the hall, it wasn’t any of the people Damon had placed on my ass.

  It was Chang.

  He cocked a brow at me and lingered long enough to close the doors.

  I could have pointed out there wasn’t any reason, not when everybody on the other side of that door could hear us just fine. It was the illusion of privacy he offered, nothing else. Nobody on the other side of the door would eavesdrop intentionally—it was a faux pas, one of those courtesies extended between people who had hearing so sensitive, they could count your heartbeat from two rooms away.

  Chang leaned against the wall next to me, his posture so calm and casual, it immediately made me wary.

  When he pulled his phone out, I knew I’d been right.

  But I didn’t look at it right away.

  I’d come out here for a reason.

  Tugging my own cell from the narrow pocket worked into one of the pockets designed into the odd cut of my not-quite-skirt, I dialed the main desk at Assembly headquarters.

  It rang.

  And rang.

  And rang.

  Seven rings before it was answered in a harried tone by a woman whose voice I didn’t recognize. “We’re at emergency status… Colbana.”

  The pause was longer than normal, I assume because whoever had answered was unfamiliar with the system—and me—and had to pause to punch my credentials into the computer and read up on me before deciding whether she should hang up or not.

  “Is this an emergency?” she demanded a few short

  “Not for me. I just have a question, but it’s urgent.”

  She made a disgusted noise under her breath. “Keep it short,” she demanded.

  “House Holiday—are any of their vamps in residence at the Assembly? Have any of them checked in or called?”

  The terse silence that followed was unlike the previous ones. When she spoke again, her voice was void of inflection, void of life itself…and I knew without even seeing her that I was speaking to a vampire, likely one that served the Assembly itself. “What is your interest in House Holiday?”

  “I have…concerns,” I said warily. I pushed off the wall but refrained from pacing as I wanted to. When I glanced over at Chang, it was just in time to see him pause in the middle of what he was doing.

  As if he sensed my attention, he looked up.

  Our eyes met and the bottom of my stomach felt like it was about the drop out completely. Turning my back on him, I stared at the doors.

  “What are you concerns, Colbana?” the woman asked, that voice still lifeless.

  “None of them were involved in the chaos last night. There was a meeting today between Alpha Lee, the leader of the shifter factions for the southern region, and the vampire factions in the same area. Holiday was notified via email, but there is no representative from their house.”

  That sensation sinking worsened as the speaker offered another taut silence.

  “Where is this meeting?” she asked, offering no answer to any of my questions yet again.

  “I’m not comfortable answering that without knowing who I am speaking with.”

  “You’re speaking with the High Council. Answer my question.”

  A band settled around my throat and I closed my eyes, heart racing so fast, I thought I might sick. “I ask a name, Speaker.” This was bad. The High Council was the leading voice—there were thirteen High Councils in all scattered across the globe, each assigned to a specific territory.

  I didn’t know much of anything about them but if they were here…

  “The name is Anne. It is inconsequential to you,” she said, sounding bored now. “What is of consequence is this: I want to know where this meeting is. I have matters I must discuss with the vampires of the region. Now.”

  A shadow fell in front of me and I look upward slowly, my eyes tracking over Chang, registering over what he’d done without really connecting it to anything.

  Maxine and Icarus stood in the door, Abraham guarding their backs. Behind them, Damon and his people stood like a wall between the vampires of Amund and Allerton and the rest.

  I didn’t realize I’d lowered the phone until Chang readjusted his stance and turned so he could face me and still watched the others. He took my wrist and guided the phone back to my ear. “Finish your conversation, Kit. Answer her question—but she must answer yours if she wants more information.”

  Great. Make me be the one at the bargaining table.

  There was too much adrenaline pulsing in the air now and it was about to choke me.

  Squeezing the phone, I said softly, “Speaker, I must ask why you again, do you have news of House Holiday?”

  “Yes.” It came out clipped and harsh. “House Holiday is no more. Now, answer my question.”

  I met Icarus’s gaze across the hall.

  There was no way he hadn’t heard. His lashes fell and he turned to Maxine. She looked about as stunned as any vampire I’d ever seen.

  “Answer her question, Kit. We must collect whatever information we can.” With that, Icarus turned and walked back into the room. The tension gathering there melted away and people fell back from him one by one until even Albion, who’d worked his followers up like people getting high on roid rage, waved a hand, clearly dismissing me.

  Softly, I gave her the information

  Then I ended the call and following Icarus’s example, I returned to the room and settled back down on the couch.

  “It sounds like the people of House Holiday were all slaughtered.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  My arms felt like leaden weights.

  Still, I couldn’t shut my mind down.

  After receiving news about the Holiday vampires, we’d left House Allerton. There was nothing we could do, and Icarus had taken Damon, Dair and me aside. Although the conversation had been for Damon and Dair, Icarus made it clear he was honoring the request Damon had put in—he wouldn’t allow an attempt to separate the two of us.

  It would be best if you left now. There are…matters our Houses must discuss. He’d paused, then slanted a look at me. Holiday and Allerton were not allies, but nor were we enemies. If those I count among my…allies were to find useful information about their deaths, it would be most welcome.

  Damon’s mouth had gone tight and the hand he’d put on the small of my back had flexed in a way I’d come to recognize meant he wasn’t happy.

  Neither was I.

&n
bsp; Neither was Dair.

  Neither was Icarus.

  Did I really want to poke around in the deaths of an entire vampire house?

  Hell, no.

  But whoever, whatever had slaughtered an entire vampire house could likely add up to be one monster sort of threat. Monster…

  I stopped hitting the bag for a moment, caught it mid-swing and pressed my brow to it. The word monster filled me with an awful sort of foreboding. Ever since Icarus had brought up talk about something that could assassinate sight unseen, I’d had this awful pressure in the back of my mind. A secret, something hidden in the back of my head, but I wasn’t ready to face it yet.

  Or it wasn’t ready to come out and play.

  I didn’t know.

  “Son of a bitch,” I muttered, pushing back from the bag. I spun and leaped up, driving my heel into the heavy, tough leather. The bag went flying back and when it returned, I stopped it with a body blow that would have shattered ribs and caused internal damage if I’d been pounding on a human.

  Unseen monsters.

  An entire house of vampires slaughtered like they were nothing more than prey.

  In a weird, depraved, almost karmic sense, it was almost poetic.

  Some years back, vampires had turned a blind eye to stories being told of others participating in blood games. Now their own were being preyed upon.

  But surprisingly, the house that had vampires involved in those games had escaped any assassination attempts. Abraham had given me that much information and I hadn’t been able to miss the disgust in his eyes as he’d told me.

  Now, as I tried to beat away the frustration, the fog and everything else, my mind kept spinning me up in circles.

  Unseen monsters.

  A blonde woman who disappeared and couldn’t be traced.

  Exhausted as I was, as sore and drained as my body still was, every time I stopped listening to the music coming from my weapons, every time I turned away from the heavy bag I pummeled like it was trying to devour me alive, the flood of images from the past couple of days tried to drown me.

  When the door opened behind me, I didn’t turn around.

  The chain on the bag rattled in time with my blows but the rhythm was flagging.

  I was flagging.

  I was so damn tired, I couldn’t see straight.

  Adrenaline wasn’t even there to push me on. Not like the damn bag was going to come alive and attack me.

  Then the chain itself stopped rattling as Damon circled around and reached up, grabbing it to stop the swaying.

  Judging by the look on his face, he had something to tell me. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know whatever it was. But what was I supposed to do?

  “After we got back, I had a meeting with my security teams.”

  “Wow.” Shoving sweaty hair back from my face, I met his eyes. “You willingly participated in a meeting?”

  “Scott thought there was something I should hear.” He canted his head to the side. “A blonde woman was seen twice. Once near here, the other time near the rec hall.”

  I tensed. “What?”

  Damon simply waited.

  “When?” My guts had gone cold and icy and I didn’t want to move for fear I’d shatter.

  “Both occurrences happened before this started. Otherwise it would have been brought to my attention before now.” His nostrils flared, eyes spiking, swirling with shards of gold as he fought back anger or frustration…maybe even fear. “One of the sentries is new to the area—Chang had worked with her before and vouched for her, so when he recommended she be placed on security detail, it was immediately done. She hasn’t met you but you were pointed out to her briefly. The woman she saw…she thought it was you. But the day it happened you were dealing with Sanders and his brood.”

  A fist grabbed me by the throat. There were any number of reasons to brush it off. The woman hadn’t paid much attention. She’d never really met me. She was new to the area. All sorts of reasons.

  But Chang knew her.

  He’d recommended her—had vouched for her.

  “The second time…” Damon looked away this time and when he looked back, there was no question what caused the gold of a cat to splice through the gray in his eyes.

  It was fear.

  “Doyle saw a woman as he was on his way out on patrol. It was just from the rearview of his car—he saw the back of her head. But he’d assumed it was Rana. She’s taller than you, you know.”

  “Everybody’s taller than me,” I said weakly. Grabbing the bag, I leaned my head against it, trying to breathe. I smelled my own blood and sweat on the leather though and that nauseated me. Pulling back, I started to pace. “She looks enough like me to confuse somebody who doesn’t know me. She moves like me.”

  I hit the far edge of the carpet and spun, striding back. Damon caught my arm. “Is it her?”

  Her.

  He meant my grandmother.

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. “Nobody would mistake her for me—or Rana for her. Especially not Doyle. But one of her daughters? A niece?”

  We shared a long look, but said nothing else about it. We both knew. She was done being nice…wasn’t that what Malcolm had said?

  Turning back to the bag, I began to pummel it again.

  “You’re worn out,” Damon said, voice soft.

  I hit the bag again. “Nothing new.”

  “There’s nothing here to kill, Kit. You can slow down for a bit, rest.”

  Grimacing, I drilled another blow into the bag. “Always something to kill around here. Always something to fight.”

  Never any time to rest. And now my grandmother was practically prowling at the door step.

  The chain started to rattle again as he let go.

  But before I could get in more than one more off-center jab, he came between me and the bag. “How about you and me fight instead?”

  Tilting my head back, I stared at him. I was so tired, his face swam in and out of focus a few times before I could finally lock in on his face. “I don’t want to fight you. I’m not mad at you.”

  “I can change that.”

  “That wasn’t a dare.” Making a face at him, I turned away.

  Before I made it two steps, he caught me around the waist and hauled me back up against him. “You should have known I’d hunt you down and make you talk, kitten.”

  Finally, my heart decided to thump a little faster and clear away some of the fog of exhaustion. Staring at the door, I covered the hands he’d placed on my belly with my own. “Talk about what, Damon?” I asked, pretending I hadn’t heard that telltale lurch in the rhythm of my heart. “Talk about how tired I am? Talk about how fucking crazy the entire world has gone? Talk about how fucking scared I am now that I realized just who this blonde woman might be?”

  “But you didn’t just figure it out.” He kissed my neck, a comforting gentle caress. “You knew. Or some part of you did.”

  “I don’t know what I knew,” I said wearily. “Except this…I’m tired of being tired. I’m tired of being afraid. Being weak.”

  “You’re not weak.” He kissed my shoulder and slid a hand up, covering my heart with his palm. “This heart of yours…it’s too human and you feel things differently than some of us do, but that doesn’t make you weak, Kit. It makes you strong. It makes you feel things some of us can’t.”

  “This heart?” I snorted. “Only thing it’s ever gotten me was trouble. I’m weaker, slower, I feel too much…that is what I’m tired of.”

  I twisted out of his grasp and headed for the door, pausing only long enough to grab the sheathed sword I’d leaned against the door when I came in.

  He let me go.

  But I wasn’t convinced any of this was over.

  ⸸

  The dream was worse this time.

  I’d made it out of the royal household, had even managed to fool my way into the starting line for the Dominari.

  My people called it a race.

  It wasn’t a
race.

  It was voluntary manslaughter—your own.

  And I’d been willing to throw myself headlong into it, and all the monsters that waited in the unforgiving landscape of the mountains that surrounded the stronghold.

  All so I could escape the monster who lived within.

  My grandmother.

  But she found me, even here.

  The jagged, sharp sticks tore at my bare feet.

  Snow stung my eyes.

  But none of that slowed me.

  It wasn’t until I plummeted head over heels down into a ravine that I truly felt fear.

  “Run…you useless mongrel.”

  Her voice snaked out of the night to haunt me.

  Go away, I thought, huddling in the dark, trying to get my bearings.

  “You know where you are?”

  Fanis’s voice sounded cruel and hard, but…amused and light, all at the same time.

  Hunching my shoulders up as if it would block the sound, I struggled to my feet and looked around. I was in a pit that stretched out for almost as far as I could see. Even the walls that sloped upward were vast and insurmountable.

  Through the pitch black, I thought I saw one way out.

  Only one.

  It was straight ahead and up a slope that seemed less treacherous than the others.

  I could manage that.

  Why are you even trying?

  That voice didn’t belong to my grandmother.

  No, it was mine. I hadn’t come on this race to win—it wasn’t like I could earn the one thing that truly mattered. I’d never have acceptance or honor among my kind. I’d always be little more than a pathetic mess in the eyes of my queen.

  No, I’d run the Dominari to find freedom.

  The permanent kind.

  And if I wanted to find it fast, I should just lay down and let death find me.

  Slowly, I sank to my haunches, staring toward that bright light beckoning me.

  “Are you just going to sit there and wait to die? How…predictable, Jianna.”

  I flinched.

  Jianna.

  That wasn’t my name.

  Slowly, I planted my hands in the dirt behind me and began to push back, searching the darkness around me. There was nothing to be seen.